We are still considering the material which is employed to convey thought and feeling. It will be ascertained that the first and true meaning of words by no means exhausts their power when in actual use. Figures of speech embrace a valuable part of Rhetoric, and will amply repay careful analysis and methodical examination. FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. 77 CHAPTER I. TROPES. 1. Literal and Figurative Meaning.-THE meaning first given to a word is called its literal meaning. Thus the literal meaning of head is that part of the body containing the brain. The literal meaning of body is the whole physical structure of an animal. A meaning different from the first, and yet suggested by the first on account of a similarity, is called a figurative meaning. Thus the word head may mean a commanding man in a company; it may mean the first object in a collection, as the first in a column of figures, or the starting-place of a fountain or stream. The head of this chapter is "Tropes." Body may mean an army, a convention, a parliament, the principal part of a discourse or of a structure. Soul may mean the purpose or the idea, as the soul of this enterprise is personal ambition. 2. The Foundation of Tropes.-The figurative use of words is always founded upon a similarity between the two objects, or the two thoughts, which the same word is employed to express, so that a person who understands the literal meaning of the word will also readily perceive the figurative meaning, though he never heard it employed in that sense before. Thus in the expression, "The President is the head of the Government," any one who knows the meaning of words will see the sense to be, "The President sustains a relation to the other men in the Government like the relation of a head to the other parts of the body-more conspicuous and commanding." 3. Definition. Tropes are single words, used figuratively, or not in their literal meaning. The word trope is from a Greek word which signifies turning, and indicates that the word, called a trope, is turned around out of its first position or meaning. Tropes are divided into two classes--Synecdoches and Metonymies. 4. Synecdoches.-A Synecdoche is a trope in which a word is used to express something that differs from the original meaning of the word only in degree, and not in kind. "Give us our daily bread." Bread here means food; but bread originally has a part of the meaning of food -certain kinds of food being called bread. "He bartered his soul for gold"-gold here standing for wealth, of which literally it is only a part. 5. Metonymies.—A Metonymy is a trope in which a word is used to express a thing differing from its original meaning in kind. "Addison was smooth, but Prescott smoother." Here Addison means the writings of Addison; smooth means pleasing to the ear. Both words are metonymies. "Always respect old age"—a metonymy for aged people. "When speaking in a deliberative assembly, always address the chair"-a metonymy for the man who, as president, occupies the principal seat, as the |